Browse sourced findings, connection research, and open questions. Each entry retains the status and qualifications recorded with the research. A connection research note is not automatically a verified network-map relationship.
Research finding · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: SOURCED FIRST-PASS ALIGNMENT AUDIT: several prior branches show direct issue-level alignment/divergence with current party platforms; dairy/labor is presently better classified as economic-interest lobbying. No overall ideological ranking, bad-faith motive or coordinated-control conclusion.
First retrospective alignment pass under the standing methodology shows several issue-specific patterns that are stronger than generic party labels. (1) Election structure: the 2024 Idahoans for Open Primaries/Prop 1 branch, funded heavily by Article IV, Unite America and Way Back PAC, sought to abolish party primaries and replace them with a top-four primary plus ranked-choice general election. That structure directly conflicts with the current 2026 Idaho…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: PRIMARY IACI MATERIAL VERIFIED: business lobbying, coordinated advocacy, PAC candidate support and industry-policy work are documented; broader public-interest effects remain issue-specific.
IACI is a high-value node for the IdahoCabal influence audit because its own materials openly define the organization as Idaho's most effective business lobby and say it represents roughly 300 employers seeking to shape state policy. Its current board includes government/public-affairs, legal, tax, corporate-affairs and executive representatives from major employers and industries including utilities, health systems and insurers, banks, mining, agriculture…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: Primary/IRS and current organizational records verify 1630/WFF funding and Kreizenbeck's Idaho legislative-policy role. Idaho bill-specific activity and grant-to-lobbyist dollar tracing remain unresolved.
The Secure Elections Project creates a direct national-funding-to-Idaho-policy personnel route. Sixteen Thirty Fund's primary Schedule I filings report grants to Secure Elections Project of $2.03M in 2022, $75,000 in 2023 and $100,000 in 2024, totaling $2.205M across those three years. Secure Elections Project's FY2024 recipient filing separately reports $100,000 from Sixteen Thirty Fund and $50,000 from Western Futures Fund among its disclosed FY2024 fund…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: CORRECTED: Federal C00915595 has verified Contours/1630/WFF funding and Blue Moon payments. Way Back's $75K same-name payee is NOT yet linked to C00915595 because a separate South Dakota GTW PAC exists and previously received Way Back money.
Government That Works PAC (federal FEC committee C00915595, Washington, DC) is independently a significant shared recipient/professional-services node across organizations already central to the Western Futures/Way Back investigation. Its 2025 FEC filing reports Contours receipts of $650,000 on Aug. 19, $250,000 on Oct. 29 and $2,000,000 on Dec. 23 ($2.9M total); $15,000 from Western Futures Fund on Oct. 3; $300,000 from America Votes on Oct. 24; Global Im…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: STRONG CONCENTRATED-BENEFIT AUDIT CASE: IACI member ties, lobbying, tax benefits and explicit tax-shift concerns are documented. Corruption or sole causation is not established.
The data-center policy fight is a strong example of the IdahoCabal concentrated-benefit audit because IACI's member representation, lobbying position, tax policy and cost-shift mechanism can be identified directly. IACI's current board includes a Meta public-policy manager and Micron's director of U.S. government affairs. Idaho's data-center incentive exempts qualifying facilities from sales/use tax on eligible equipment and construction materials if they …
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: PRIMARY/CONTEMPORANEOUS SOURCES verify IACI policy advocacy + IPF election role + GS Strategy financial/research crossline. Candidate-selection causation or improper coordination not established.
The alignment audit now shows a concrete institutional integration inside IACI rather than merely parallel business lobbying and election spending. IACI's own materials say the Idaho Prosperity Fund (IPF) was created to fulfill IACI's campaign/election-engagement mission and that the IPF board selects candidates for independent-expenditure support. IACI testimonials say members use the association to coordinate advocacy when legislative or regulatory solut…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: CURRENT FINANCE + CANDIDATE CONVERGENCE VERIFIED: Victory/Liberty and IPF independently spent heavily for Guthrie; shared corporate donors exist. Coordination is not established.
The 2026 Guthrie race provides a stronger current example of business-funded election influence operating through two legally separate PAC lanes. Transparency USA's current Idaho Victory Fund aggregation reports approximately $703,007 in contributions and $1.103M in expenditures, including $615,000 paid to Idaho Liberty PAC. Major Victory Fund contributors include St. Luke's Health Plan ($50K), Micron Technology ($25K), Idaho Power ($20K), Idaho Automobile…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: Primary/IRS-derived 2024 grants verified: Sixteen Thirty→Civic Truth $1.34M and Civic Truth→WFF $450K. Same-dollar pass-through or earmarking not established.
A previously known Western Futures funder can now be traced one layer farther upstream. Sixteen Thirty Fund's primary FY2024 Schedule I reports a $1,340,000 grant to Civic Truth Coalition Inc. (EIN 99-3438435) for civil rights, social action and advocacy. Civic Truth Coalition's own FY2024 filing reports $3.33M total revenue and no salaries/payroll, with Cameron Campbell as its sole listed president at $0 compensation. Its Schedule I reports five major gra…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: FEC/FEC-DERIVED + CURRENT REPORTING VERIFIED: WFF-related 1861 activity, Way Back Taylor spending, and Progressive Vet $47.5K disbursement align around one candidate endpoint. Coordination/control not established; raw 1861 receipt split still pending.
A current Kansas case further documents how Western Futures Fund and Way Back PAC can appear around the same candidate through different legal/financial channels without proving coordination. The 1861 Initiative (FEC C00945733), a Kansas super PAC registered April 1, 2026, reported $69,300 in FEC 'Other Receipts' through June 30. Current FEC-derived transaction data identify a $59,300 itemized payment associated with Western Futures Fund in the committee's…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: IRS/primary records verify WFF→CaPA Ed $500K, 1630→CaPA Ed $1.05M, CaPA Ed→CaPA $8.169M and CaPA→CVIEF $60K. Same-dollar tracing and Idaho donor selection remain unproved.
A same-year 2024 multi-entity funding route now connects both Western Futures Fund and Sixteen Thirty Fund to the Clean and Prosperous America structure, which separately made a direct Idaho grant. Western Futures Fund's FY2024 grant records report a $500,000 general-purpose grant to Clean and Prosperous America Education Fund (EIN 93-2263138). Sixteen Thirty Fund's primary FY2024 Schedule I separately reports $1,050,000 to the same Education Fund. The Edu…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: PRIMARY IRS RESPONSE VERIFIED: Contours classifies 527 grants as indirect political-campaign activity and describes candidate/public-official alignment as a selection criterion. No Idaho-specific direction established.
Contours' Sept. 4, 2025 IRS response provides unusually direct primary-source language about how it selects and accounts for grants to political organizations. Contours states that it makes two grant types: grants to 501(c)(4) social-welfare organizations and grants to Section 527 political organizations. It says the 527 grants are intended to constitute indirect political campaign activity rather than social-welfare spending. For 527 grants, Contours says…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: Primary/IRS-derived FY2024 grants verified: 1630→LCV $11.796M, 1630→America Votes $27.85M, America Votes→LCV $6.29M, LCV→CVI $298K. Same-dollar tracing/control not established.
The conservation/election branch into Idaho now has a more precise FY2024 multi-lane funding topology. Sixteen Thirty Fund's primary FY2024 Schedule I reports $11,796,000 to League of Conservation Voters (LCV) for civil rights, social action and advocacy. America Votes' IRS-derived FY2024 grant data separately report $6,290,000 to LCV, while Sixteen Thirty itself gave America Votes $27,850,000 in FY2024. Conservation Voters for Idaho's recipient-side FY202…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: Primary/official records verify SEP funding and Kansas anti-RCV testimony; previously documented Idaho records verify Way Back support for the Prop 1 RCV campaign. This is evidence against assuming uniform downstream policy control from shared funding alone.
A useful counterexample has emerged that constrains any claim that Sixteen Thirty Fund or Western Futures Fund imposes one uniform election-policy line on downstream organizations. Secure Elections Project received $2.205M from Sixteen Thirty across 2022–2024 and $50,000 from Western Futures in FY2024. In February 2025, Secure Elections Project submitted proponent testimony in Kansas for SB 6, legislation prohibiting ranked-choice voting. By contrast, in I…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: IRS-derived CaPA→CVIEF $60K and Sixteen Thirty→CaPA Education Fund $1.05M verified; CaPA itself documents donor-selected geography/criteria. Idaho donor identity/earmarking not established.
A separate 2024 grantmaking lane into Idaho has now been documented with unusually explicit information about how donor preferences can influence grant portfolios. Conservation Voters for Idaho Education Fund's FY2024 filing reports a $60,000 grant from Clean and Prosperous America (CaPA) for organizational support; CVIEF also received $84,300 from League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, $60,000 from Western Conservation Foundation, $50,000 from LCV,…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: PRIMARY REGULATORY RECORD: IACI, Perpetua and mining interests opposed 2026 changes; DEQ later vacated. Causation is unproved and industry public-interest arguments are preserved.
A current regulatory case shows how IACI and an IACI-board member company participate in the same rulemaking to protect regulated-industry interests. DEQ's 2026 Groundwater Quality Rule docket proposed, among other things, aligning Idaho groundwater standards with federal national primary drinking-water standards and considering changes to aquifer categorization; DEQ described the goal as consistent standards protective of human health. On June 16, IACI su…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: PLATFORM + ROLL-CALL + 2026 IE support verified for key candidates. IACI/IPF's own HB93 position and endorsement motive remain unproved.
The retrospective alignment pass identifies a second concrete policy fault line: school choice. The Idaho Republican Party platform adopted June 15, 2024 states that parental choice should be maximized through money following students to the parent's school of choice and expressly includes private/parochial schools and education savings accounts. In the 2025 House vote on HB 93, which created the Idaho parental choice tax credit, Republicans Ben Fuhriman, …
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: HISTORICAL MECHANISM VERIFIED: IACI sought larger repeal; final bipartisan compromise cut business taxes ~$20M with state sales-tax backfill. Capture/abuse is not established.
A historical IACI tax campaign provides a clean example of the concentrated-benefit-versus-cost-shift framework, although the final policy was a broad compromise rather than IACI's original proposal. In 2013 IACI pushed a phased full repeal of Idaho's business personal property tax, which applies to business equipment/furnishings. Contemporary reporting put IACI's full-repeal proposal at roughly $120 million; public schools alone received an estimated $38.…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: Primary 2024 Sixteen Thirty grant and America Votes Idaho state-table presence verified. Idaho staff, budget, partners and any Votes Idaho relationship remain unresolved.
The Sixteen Thirty→America Votes branch is materially larger than the direct Sixteen Thirty→Western Futures route and has a documented Idaho-facing operational presence. Sixteen Thirty's primary FY2024 Schedule I reports $27,850,000 to America Votes for civil rights, social action and advocacy. IRS-derived grant aggregation reports approximately $179.6 million from Sixteen Thirty to America Votes across five annual grants from 2020–2024, making America Vot…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: RECONCILIATION UPGRADE: Primary FEC reproduces $175K Way Back→Hometown Heroes through 6/30/26, while previously captured Idaho Sunshine shows $205K. Preserve the unresolved $30K delta; do not silently choose one total. Officer identity still unresolved.
Hometown Heroes remains a major Idaho money-routing and independent-expenditure node, but transaction-level reconciliation now exposes a specific $30,000 discrepancy that should be preserved rather than smoothed over. The Idaho Secretary of State Sunshine profile previously reproduced in this research shows $205,000 in contributions from Way Back PAC to Hometown Heroes. Primary Way Back FEC Schedule B records directly reproduce only $175,000 through June 3…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: PRIMARY/FEC + DIRECT PUBLISHER VERIFIED: Way Back paid Tavern $15K for research in 2025; Contours commissioned Tavern polls in 2026; WFF-backed 1861 later reported a $450K Tavern IE. Shared vendor node verified; data-sharing/coordination not established.
Tavern Research now emerges as a documented professional-services crossline across three branches of the network. A primary Way Back PAC FEC Schedule B filed July 30, 2025 reports a $15,000 payment to Tavern Research on April 24, 2025 for 'Research Services - Non-Contribution Account.' Separately, Tavern Research's own 2026 published polling identifies Contours Inc. as the commissioner of likely-voter surveys in Montana and Nebraska; Contours' own Sept. 4,…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: PRIMARY IRS VERIFIED: Article IV reports strategic support to state reform campaigns; FY2024 $2.22M IOP + $25K CAP grants and $170K DPI + $30K Way Back political payments. Idaho-specific advisory assignment/coordination not established.
Article IV’s FY2024 Form 990 materially sharpens its role beyond passive grantmaking. In its program-service narrative, Article IV states that its “core team of cross-partisan advisors” provided strategic support to various state reform campaigns aligned with Article IV’s policy priorities and board vision, while Article IV also made financial grants to those campaigns. The same filing’s Schedule I reports $2,220,000 in general support to Idahoans for Open…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: SOURCED USE/EFFECT BASELINE: candidate-selection, ballot-reform, legislative-pressure and campaign-infrastructure channels are documented. Ideological direction varies by branch; no claim of centralized control or sole causation.
The research should now distinguish money-flow from demonstrated use/effect. Current public records support at least four separate Idaho influence channels. (1) Republican primary candidate selection: Defend and Protect Idaho, whose largest 2026 donor was Way Back PAC at $350,000, spent more than $752,800 supporting 23 Republican primary candidates and opposing 14; Idaho Capital Sun and Idaho Education News describe the supported side primarily as mainstre…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: MULTI-LANE INDUSTRY PATHWAY VERIFIED: workforce policy, legal-service support and GOP-primary PAC strategy are explicit. Illegality, candidate control and net public harm are not established.
The alignment audit connects several previously separate dairy-industry activities into one documented policy/electoral chain. Idaho Dairymen's Association (IDA) has long described stable access to agricultural labor as economically important to dairy operations and advocates immigration-policy changes including legal status for existing agricultural workers, year-round worker visas and federal responsibility for employment-status verification. In 2018, ID…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: VERIFIED CANDIDATE-SET OVERLAP: official 2023 Idaho GOP resolution plus 2026 DPI spending and IDI-PAC endorsement records. Reason for later support and any coordinated strategy remain unproved.
A retrospective candidate-set comparison finds a non-random-looking overlap that merits issue-by-issue follow-up but does not itself prove common strategy. In June 2023, the Idaho Republican State Central Committee formally passed Resolution 2023-43 issuing a vote of no confidence to Gov. Brad Little and fourteen Republican House members over their votes against overriding Little's veto of HB 314. The resolution expressly said those lawmakers had voted in …
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